DIRECT. The circumstances of the death of Naël M., killed in Nanterre by two shots from a police officer on Tuesday June 27, must be clarified. The officer in question is suspected of intentional homicide.
The context of the incident that took place in Nanterre is still rather vague. According to the first elements, the driver of the car allegedly committed several traffic offenses in the morning before being approached by two police officers on motorcycles around 8:30 a.m., near the Nanterre-Préfecture RER station, near the place Nelson-Mandela, behind the La Défense business district.
The vehicle is then at the François-Arago passage stop. On the video that has been looping since mid-afternoon on the networks and in several media, we see the two police officers, members of the territorial traffic and road safety company of 92, with the yellow sedan, on the driver’s side, where the window is lowered. Several words are exchanged as an officer takes aim at the young man behind the wheel.
It was when the driver seemed to restart that the armed police officer shot him, according to the images authenticated by AFP. The car escapes then will stop a few tens of meters further by embedding itself in a post. The young man was pronounced dead at 9:16 a.m. According to the first elements of the investigation reported by police sources to AFP, the driver of the vehicle, a Mercedes AMG which had been rented, had committed several traffic violations. At the sight of police motorcyclists, he first stopped, before accelerating.
At first, police sources claimed that the vehicle ran into the police. “This vehicle made an initial refusal to comply and then got stuck in the flow of traffic,” said Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez on BFMTV in the afternoon. “The official may have felt threatened,” he said.
The 17-year-old young man, who lost his life on Tuesday June 27, 2023 in Nanterre following a refusal to comply during a police check in Nanterre, was called Naël M. Born in 2006, the teenager was known to the police for driving without a license, but also refusing to comply. The young man is however described as “a lovely boy” by a neighbor. “It was a cream”, she confided to the Parisian, specifying that Naël M. was the only child of his mother. The teenager lived in the Salvador-Allende district and was a delivery man.
In its press release published Tuesday, June 27 at the start of the evening, the prosecution indicated that the police officer who fatally touched Naël M. in Nanterre was placed in police custody for “intentional homicide”. For his part, the passenger who had not fled was released from police custody at the end of his hearing, at the start of the afternoon. The third passenger, who had taken to his heels, is for his part “still wanted”, it was specified. Regarding the blood alcohol and narcotics screening operations, these were “carried out and turned out to be negative”, informed the public prosecutor’s office, which also announced that “an autopsy and additional examinations, in particular in matters of toxicology have been ordered and must be carried out” on Wednesday, June 28.
Earlier in the day, the lawyer for the teenager’s family, Yassine Bouzrou, had announced the filing of three complaints: one for “voluntary homicide”, targeting the offending police officer, another against his colleague and a third for ” false in public writing”. He believes that the police “lied this morning by saying that young Naël’s vehicle had tried to hit them” and that “the video formally denies what the police said”.
Two flagrance investigations were opened by the Nanterre prosecutor’s office. The Nanterre police station and the Hauts-de-Seine Territorial Security were entrusted with the one for refusal to comply and attempted intentional homicide on a person holding public authority. The IGPN was seized for intentional homicide by a person holding public authority. The prosecution clarified that the young man who died was known to the justice services, in particular for driving without a license and refusing to comply.
The victim’s grandmother spoke on BFMTV during the day, saying that “it was the police who […] killed” her 17-year-old grandson and that “they shot him the heart”. The mayor of Nanterre, Patrick Jarry, for his part called “calm”, despite “overwhelming” images. He demanded “the whole truth and fast”.
At the Assembly, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin did the same in the afternoon on Tuesday, specifying that the police officers were heard by the justice services. “We do not know – except for the extremely shocking images that I have seen like many French people – the exact conditions”, he assured. Referring to “a drama”, he said he was “attached to the protection of the innocence of the accused, in particular of the one who shot and who will have to account for his actions”.
“This gesture calls out to me,” added Paris Police Prefect Laurent Nuñez on BFMTV, who described a civil servant “himself very shocked by this tragedy”. Laurent Nuñez indicated that a “security device” had been put in place in Nanterre “and will remain so for as long as necessary”. About forty people had already gathered in the early afternoon of Tuesday, near the scene of the tragedy, tears in their eyes, to share their “anger”. Tuesday evening, incidents took place in the early evening in Nanterre. Garbage cans and street furniture were set on fire. Seven people were arrested around 8 p.m. The forces of order were mobilized.
